How Russian corporate lobbying in the EU works:a new report by Transparency International – Russia

5 July 2017

Transparency International – Russia presents a new report, “Russian corporate lobbying in the EU countries: public registries of lobbyists.” The report describes functioning of public lobbyists’ registries available in 13 countries and in the EU via government- or NGO-ran websites.

We have also examined several cases of lobbying for Russian corporations in national and international authorities, including lobbying efforts of Gazprom in Austria, France, the UK, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, and Slovenia. It has to be said that the report was not meant to be all-encompassing as not all countries of the EU have their lobbyists’ registries and it is currently impossible to assess the incidence of Russian corporations’ government relations in the EU.

There is no definition regulation of lobbying in current Russian law. Lobbying is nonetheless widespread both in Russia and abroad. People have no means to obtain knowledge of funds spent on lobbying by publicly owned corporations. We believe that this lack of transparency and regulation lead to higher corruption risks.